About

About

What Makes This Website Different

Where can consumers turn for unbiased information about the quality of care provided by the thousands of long-term care providers in California?

Free and easy-to-use, CalQualityCare.org features information on nursing homes, and other long-term care facilities, along with tips and checklists about how to choose a health care provider, questions to ask, how to pay for care, and what to do if something goes wrong.

UCSF-SBS/IHA is responsible for the information produced on this website.

CalQualityCare History

Public information about health care quality is hard to come by, sometimes not objective, and often difficult to understand.

In 2002, UCSF-SBS and the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) saw an overwhelming need to make long-term care information available and recognized that providing the information online is the most effective path. CHCF began sponsoring the project and the UCSF-SBS team provided the data content for the website, including developing the ratings methods and scoring the facilities. For the next fourteen years, CHCF generously supported the mission of sharing long-term information with the public in an unbiased a freely available website.

The initial collaboration between UCSF-SBS and CHCF began modestly, first publishing ratings of nursing homes online at the site “California Nursing Home Search” (CalNHS.org). In December 2004, we added similar profiles and ratings of home health care agencies and hospice services. And in September 2005 the site was expanded to include congregate living health facilities, assisted living, continuing care retirement communities, adult day health care programs, and adult day care centers.

In 2009, CalQualityCare.org was launched, upgrading and updating the California Nursing Home Search site based on in-depth research conducted among key audiences, including consumers and long term care providers.

In 2016, UCSF-SBS/IHA assumed full responsibility for CalQualityCare.org. While the California Health Care Foundation is no longer involved with the website, their vision in those early years will always be present in the ongoing mission of CalQualityCare.org.

UCSF-SBS/IHA will continue updating and adding health care quality data and ratings to CalQualityCare.org as new information becomes available.

The site does not give performance ratings for assisted living, congregate living health facilities, continuing care retirement communities, adult day health care, or adult day care because these providers are subject to different standards that do not allow for collecting similar performance data. As data on these facilities become available, ratings will be assigned to those providers.